


What to do When you're Having a Sparkling

by espioc



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Bad Parenting, Prowl being a little shit, Shenanigans, prowl getting turned into a sparkling, sparkling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 09:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12009987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/espioc/pseuds/espioc
Summary: Hook and Mixmaster may have accidentally turned Prowl into a sparkling on their visit to Luna-1





	What to do When you're Having a Sparkling

**Author's Note:**

> fic for unfriendlyghostking on tumblr. Hope you enjoy!

“ _ What _ . Did you two idiots  _ do _ ?” Bonecrusher asked stiffly, looking down at the sleeping thing in Hooks arms. 

“Nothing. Clearly,” Hook answered too quickly. A second later he furrowed his brow, insulted, putting a fist on his hip. “Are you implying that Mixmaster and I accidentally turned Prowl into a sparkling? Because that would be an insult to my genius.”

Bonecrusher could do nothing but stare at them. “He finally lets us visit him on Luna One and you go off and do  _ this _ ! What were you even trying to do!?”

“Oh we were trying to do this. We needed a test subject, he was right there. Naturally he was the perfect candidate.”

The tiny slumbering Prowl let out a tiny yawn as he began to stir. Tiny hands flexed against Hook’s arm trying to find it’s bearing as he drifted off back into recharge. 

“Ew,” Mixmaster grumbled, looking down at the little thing. 

Bonecrusher stood in silence for a moment briefly thinking over the situation. “What are we going to do with him?” he eventually asked. 

Hook shrugged a shoulder. “I would assume we change him back. Or, better yet, we don’t and see how long he stays like this.”

Bonecrusher scowled. “How can we form Devastator when our head is a dumb sparkling?”

“I’m sure our old buddy Prowl is still in there somewhere.”

Long-Haul, who had been wandering around the facility, approached his team, curious as to what was catching their attention. “What is  _ that _ ?” he inquired, making a face at the sparkling balanced on Hook’s arm. 

“It’s Prowl,” Bonecrusher answered before anyone could say anything. 

“Oh,” was all Long-Haul said in response. 

Before anyone could comment Scavanger came rushing in. “You guys would not  _ believe _ the mat--ho, hey,  _ what _ is  _ that? _ ” he asked, all excitement dissipating at the sight of the sparkling. 

“That’s Prowl,” Long-Haul answered simply. 

Scavenger eyed the baby for a moment. “Something about him looks different.”

“He’s a sparkling,” Hook clarified bluntly. 

Scavenger snapped, pointing a finger. “That’s it.”

Hook rolled his eyes. Scavenger slipped between his team to get a little closer, leaning down to get a better look at the thing. “What are we going to do with him?” he asked, poking sparkling Prowl in the head a bit. Hook swatted away his hand. “Don’t touch him you idiot. Sparklings are sensitive.”

Scavenger stood up straight. “But this is  _ Prowl. _ Sparkling or not I’m sure he can handle a bit of prodding.”

Hook could only roll his eyes again. Bonecrusher stepped forward. “We’re changing him back,” he determined sternly. “ _ Now, _ Hook.”

Hook waved them off. “Yeah yeah, don’t get your gears in a twist,” he grumbled, walking back over to the table where his small device still sat. Carefully he placed Prowl on the workbench right in line with the machine, and picked up his remote. With one click of a button the device was supposed to turn on and a single beam would have Prowl back to his normal self again. 

Of course, that was what was  _ supposed _ to happen. What really happened was nothing. Hook pressed the button again. Then again. And again and again and again until he finally slammed the remote on the table. “Mixmaster!” he called, looking to his team mate. “Did I  _ not  _ tell you to make a reverse formula?”

Mixmaster smikered. “You might have, but I never perfected it.”

Hook was fuming. “ _ This _ is exactly why I never work with any of you ingrates,” he snapped, picking Prowl back up and returning to the group. “I can’t turn him back until our resident chemist creates the formula for a reversal serum. Unfortunately. Had I known this would happen I would have done the entire project on my own.”

Everyone’s attention turned to Mixmaster who was picking something out of his dentia. “Should have it in a couple days,” he mumbled, flicking away whatever it was he’d picked out. An uncomfortably sinister smirk fell across his face. “If I can do it at all. We’ll see.”

Everyone groaned. Bonecrusher poked a finger in the cement mixers chest. “You’ve got two days before we turn you inside out,” he warned. “Might still be able to turn into Devastator then.”

Prowl let out a long whine, drawing everyone’s attention. Hook eyed it cautiously. “What is it doing?” he asked, holding sparkling Prowl up and away from him. The other constructions took a place behind him so they could all look at the tiny thing wiggling in Hook’s hands. 

“I think...he’s crying,” Scavenger guessed. Prowl’s face scrunched up before he let out another hiccuped whine, squirming even more in Hooks grip. 

“He’s  _ what- _ ing?” 

“Crying, it’s a thing these things do.”

Prowl let out a particularly loud high pitched wail, causing the Constructicons to draw back. “Well it sounds horrible!” Long-Haul cried over the wailing. “Make it stop!” 

“I don’t know how!” 

Bonecrusher yelled into Hook’s audio receptor. “The figure it out you bolt brain!” 

“Maybe we should just hit it over the head,” Mixmaster proposed. 

“ _ No! _ ” everyone yelled in unision. 

They just stood there for a moment, clueless, while Prowl continued to whine. “How long do you think he’s going to do this for?” Scavenger asked, letting his hands drop to his sides. 

“Probably until we do something,” Bonecrusher snapped.

“Well then do something,” Scavenger said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “It’s so small, how hard can it be?” he reached up and snatched the sparkling from Hook’s servos. The shovel bounced the little thing up and down in the crook of his arm. “I saw a human do this once,” he explained to everyone staring on in confusion. “Maybe he’s just hungry,” he suggested with a shrug. 

Everyone exchanged glances. “What do you feed a sparkling?” Bonecrusher asked, stepping forward to look at the still crying Prowl. The sparkling had seemed to calm somewhat, but continued to whine. 

“I dunno, energon?” Scavenger suggested. What else could they feed it? Sparkling or not Prowl was still a Cybertronian. 

Before anyone could react a new voice joined the horde. “What are you all doing in my lab?” asked Cerebros, just stepping through the door. Scavenger quickly shoved the whining sparkling behind his back, balancing it on his hands. 

Hook scoffed. “More that you’ve ever done with it,” he snapped at the processor specialist. Bonecrusher elbowed him hard in the side. “Nothin’” he corrected. “Just lookin’ for our head,” he smirked, stepping around Cerebros and making sure he stayed in front of Scavenger as they all carefully vacated the lab. Scavenger tread suspiciously carefully as he side stepped around the owner of the lab, all the while keeping his eye on the bot and a crooked smile on his mouth. As soon as they were to the door he turned and moved Prowl back to the front of him. 

The constructicons shoved each other through the door and were quick to close it behind them, leaving a very confused Cerebros in their wake. 

As soon as they were in the clear everyone vented a sigh of relief. “That was close,” Scavenger mumbled, looking down at sparkling Prowl. Though, he found he wasn’t looking down at sparkling Prowl, and instead stared at his empty hands. Everyone stared with him, a bolt of panic going through the group. 

“Where is he!?” Bonecrusher screeched. “You _ idiot _ , where did he go!?” 

“This is why we don’t let you do things,” Hook commented. 

Bonecrusher’s attention turned to Hook. “Any other day I would agree with you, but we wouldn’t be in this mess at all if you could control your stupid self proclaimed genius!”

Mixmaster just laughed while Long Haul took a second to look around. “There he is,” he said, interrupting Bonecrusher’s rage to point out the tiny sparkling crawling around on the floor a few feet away. The dump truck scooped up the little guy and held him unsteadily in one hand. Prowl squirmed around, trying to free himself from his captors grip, but found a new hand in his way every time he thought he’d made progress. 

Bonecrusher snatched the sparkling from his teammates hand. He shot a glare to Mixmaster and Hook. “You two are going to work on reversing this while we watch Prowl. You’d better have it all worked out by morning.”

“Unless, of course, he’s back to Prowl by morning,” Scavenger added. 

“Shut up Scavenger.”

Scavenger eased back. Though smiled when sparkling Prowl looked at him with those big curious optics of his. The sparkling reached his arms back in an attempt to reach the shovel, the soft child like wonder never wavering from his features. “Awwww,” Scavenger mused. “You’re so much cuter as a sparkling,” he mumbled, reaching a finger out for the sparkling to take. “A lot less mean too.”

Bonecrusher, suddenly noticing the coddling, quickly pulled the sparkling away. “Don’t get attached,” he warned, finger nearly making contact with Scavengers face. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” Scavenger quickly assured. 

“Good.”

Hook scoffed. “How do you expect me to work without a lab?”

“I expect you to make it work. The both of you. You just need to play nice with the-” Bonecrusher was interrupted by a squirming Prowl. “Ugh, stop--” he growled with frustration as the sparkling nearly fell out of his arms. “What is wrong with this kid!” he raged, holding Prowl under the arms and away from himself. 

“Just put him down!” Long Haul suggested loudly. 

“No!” Bonecrusher snapped. “He is  _ not  _ getting away from us!” 

Prowl began to scream again. 

“ _ Pimus _ Bonecrusher just put him down!” Hook cried, covering his audio receptors. 

With an annoyed roared Bonecrusher put the little tyke down. That didn’t seem to be the solution, however, as Prowl continued to whine. Albeit somewhat less. The sparkling smacked his fists against Bonecrushers legs as if demanding something. He wore a tiny scowl to rival full grown Prowl. 

“Awwww,” Scavenger drawled again. “Prowl it really is you.”

Sparkling Prowl waved his arms about as he began to whine again. 

Bonecrusher shot a scowl to Hook, knocking him in the head. “ _ Fix this _ ,” he demanded again. “Make nice with the head guy and  _ fix this. _ ” 

Sparkling Prowl whined for attention, sliding around on his bum to reach the other constructicons. With quite a bit of effort he eventually reached Long Haul. 

“Don’t think you’re getting anything outta me, kid,” Long Haul muttered immediately, looking down at the little thing. 

“Is Prowl still technically our boss?” Scavenger inquired. 

“Of course he’s not, you idiot,” Hook snapped immediately. “Look at him he’s a foot tall.”

Prowl let out a long loud scream, banging his little fists at Long Haul. The dump truck picked him up again, but quickly returned him to the ground when he started to squirm. “Alright, alright, I’ll putcha down you little monster.” 

As soon as Prowl was back on the ground he toppled over onto his back and struggled to right himself again. Bonecrusher half heartedly gave him a little nudge with his foot, helping the little guy to sit up. 

“He’s probably hungry,” Bonecrusher suggested again, leaning down to pick him up, ignoring any protests and the tiny fist that swatted at his face. “We’ll be in the mess, you bolt bains play nice with the head guy,” With that Bonecrusher wandered away, Long Haul and Scavenger in tow, leaving Hook and Mixmaster to resolve their little incident. 

Bonecrusher demanded Scavenger go on ahead first around every corner and make sure no one was coming before they continued on their way. Luckily for them it was a big facility with very few people living in it so getting around wasn’t much of a problem. It was also fortunate that Prowl had decided to cease his whining and instead reluctantly cuddle up to Bonecrusher until they reached the mess hall. 

What was  _ unfortunate  _ was who they found then whey got there. 

_ Of course _ , one of the  _ only _ other three people living there just  _ had _ to be having a cube right then.  _ Of course _ . And it just had to be the most paranoid of them all, didn’t it? No constructicon ever got off too easy. 

Red Alert eyed them as they came in and continued to eye them as they sat down as far away from him as possibly. They all sat with their backs to Red Alert, Bonecrusher keeping Prowl in his lap so the security bot didn’t see him. Long Haul retrieved the cubes while Scavenger sat beside their leader and resisted the urge to coddle Sparkling Prowl. Any time he went to touch the sparkling his hand was promptly slapped away and he was warned to not draw attention to themselves. 

Long Haul couldn’t return with their cubes soon enough. When Bonecrusher offered Prowl his, however, the sparkling was completely disinterested, pushing the purple substance away. Bonecrusher growled at his third attempt to get the sparkling to drink. “Come on you little menace, you’ve been whinin’ for this all day.”

“Maybe try a softer approach,” Scavenger suggested. 

“Shut up Scavenger.”

Long Haul reached out for the cube. “Let me try,” he proposed, but Bonecrusher pulled the cube away. “I am perfectly capable of-!” he stopped short, remembering that they weren’t alone. Everyone took a glance back at Red Alert who was still eying them from across the room. 

A second later they regrouped. “If he tells Fort Max we turned Prowl into a sparkling we are dead metal,” Bonecrusher whispered. “Not like I’m afraid of Fort Max or anything, because I’m not, but I don’t feel a need to take that chance,” with that Bonecrusher quickly stood, his team following suit, and they all carefully sidestepped it to the door, booking it out as soon as they reached the threshold. 

Carefully and without being seen they made their way to Prowls room where they laid sparkling Prowl on the berth and took a moment to relax. Prowl wiggled around on his back, reaching his tiny hands up as if trying to grab onto something. Tiny trying noises escaped his mouth as he struggled to sit up. Eventually he gave up and began to whine again, though not as loud as before. More with dissatisfaction than actual distress. 

Scavenger approached the sparkling and stared down at him for a moment. “I think he’s gotten bigger,” he said, Prowl staring blankly back at him with those big blue eyes. Scavenger looked back to the rest of the group. “Wouldn’t you say?” 

Bonecrusher rose from where he was sitting and came to stand at the berth, shoving Scavenger aside to he could get a better look at the sparkling. “Hm,” he grunted. “He has gotten bigger,” he determined. He reached down and grabbed Prowl under the arms, bringing the sparkling up into a seated position. Bonecrusher retrieved the cube from where he’d placed it on the desk and offered it to the little tyke. “Drink up, Prowl,” he said before Prowls tiny fingers made their way around the cube and he pulled it from the much larger bots hand. As soon as he had a good grip on it Prowl threw his head back and chugged the cube as fast as an approximately two stellar cycle old could. 

“This is good right?” Scavenger said a bit enthusiastically. “This means he’ll be back to his normal self.”

“Yeah but in how long,” Bonecrusher muttered, standing back. 

Everyone watched as Prowls eyes began to droop and his body began to fall over. Every once in a while the toddler would perk awake for a second and right himself, only to be thwarted by incoming fatigue. 

The constructicons found themselves falling into recharge right along with him, forcing themselves back awake to keep watch. 

Eventually, though, everyone fell asleep. 

 

* * *

 

Bonecrusher woke up the the feeling of something on his face. His optics onlined to the young face of Prowl who was standing on the bulldozers lap. As soon as Bonecrusher moved Prowl leaped off and scurried back into his berth, hiding under one of the blankets. 

Bonecrusher perked into awakeness, quickly checking his chronometer to see how long they’d been out. It’s only been about two hours and it appeared as though Prowl was just getting out of the toddler phase. Bonecrusher looked around at his still sleeping colleagues to find they all has remnant of light pen smeared on their face. “Oh that little menace,” Bonecrusher mumbled, then flying to his feet and making his way to the berth where Prowl was hiding. 

Or where he thought he was hiding. 

Bonecrusher threw away the blanket to find nothing underneath. For a moment he was surprised before he heard a little giggle from the door and turned to see Prowl just beyond the threshold, an uncomfortably sinister smirk on his face. Bonecrusher raced after the sparkling but had a door slam in his face. The lock code from the inside wasn’t working so Bonecrusher resorted to slamming on the door with his fists, yelling for the toddler to let them out. 

Prowl merely snickered, satisfied with his work, before running away down the hall. He didn’t make it very far before running into the legs of someone big and green. 

Mixmaster reached down and grabbed sparkling Prowl by the scruff of the neck. “Where ya think you’re goin’?” he asked. 

Hook studied the older sparkling for a moment. “Hm. Interesting result,” he muttered. “Good thing we haven’t figured out the reverse formula yet,” he commented, fishing a needle from his subspace. “I think a long nap will suffice.” Prowl squirmed in the tight grip. “No!” he yelled, intensifying his squirm in an attempt to escape getting a shot. 

Hook managed to inject the tranquilizer right in the sparklings arm, ceasing all protest in a matter of second. “Good thing I keep these on me,” he muttered, returning the needle to his subspace and taking sparkling Prowl as he was dropped into his arms. The young bot was certainly heavier now as Hook balanced him against his shoulder. 

They made their way to Prowls room where they could hear Bonecrusher and the rest screaming from down the hall. As soon as they opened the door Hook felt inclined to make a comment. “What kind of idiot lets a sparkling get the drop on them?”

“The kind of idiot who can rip your processor out of your helm,” Bonecrusher snapped back. 

Hook delivered the drowsy Prowl to his berth and tucked him in. Everyone gathered around for a moment just staring. 

“He’s cute when he’s not trying to kill us,” Scavenger commented. 

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Hook warned. “That’s still the same Prowl we know and love.”

Bonecrusher suddenly noticed something in Mixmaster’s arms. He scowled. “You have  _ got _ to be kidding me.”

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t until the next morning that Prowl woke up, back to his fully formed self, complete with a terrible processor ach. He wandered into the Space Bridge room, rubbing an aching head. “What happened to me?” he groaned, looking to Red Alert for answers. “What did I do last night?”

Red Alert, not looking up from the controls, gestured the Constructicons behind him. “I’m sure your friends there can tell you.”

From where they were, standing before the space bridge, a few of the constructicons waved to him wearing all too happy face. 

“Prowl!” Bonecrusher called as the police bot approached. “How ya been, buddy? Feeling better?”

Prowl scowled. “What did you all do to me?” he demanded sternly. 

“Nothing that couldn’t be reversed,” Bonecrusher assured. “Unfortunately we’ve gotta give an early goodbye, so we’ll be seeing you!” with that he rushed of. Everyone passed by a skeptical looking Fort Max as they passed through the space bridge, saying their good-byes. 

The residents of Luna-1 looked on, confused at the Constructicons behavior. 

Mixmaster, who was last in line, stopped in front of Fort Max and handed him a small squirming form. “This is yours,” he said bluntly, before passing through the space bridge with the rest of his team. 

Fort Max went wide eyed as he was suddenly saddled with a sparkling. Red Alert rose from his seat to get a better look, coming around to one side of Max while Prowl occupied the other. 

Max leaned over a bit, squinting at the sparkling. “Cerebros?” he inquired carefully. 

The sparkling merely giggled. 


End file.
